"To me," cried Alice, "it appears to be a man on horseback."
"Hardly possible!" exclaimed Ferdinand, "what human being would be so mad? Or rather, how can any man and horse live on such a sea as that!"
"It is, indeed, rashness, in the present state of the tide;" returned Cornelia, "the sands are so shifting, and the sea so rough. But when it is quite at ebb, or before it be amply full, persons, acquainted with the track, may find safe opportunities of passing on foot or on horseback from the mainland. We have it on record, that in the persecuting reign of William the Conqueror, a little army of monks brought the relics of Saint Cuthbert from Durham to the opposite shore, and crossed with them, dry-shod, to Holy Island."
"Our cockle gatherers do the same continually," cried Alice, "but certainly never with the tide in the state it is now; and so, most likely, that is some poor smuggler flying from the revenue officers."
While Cornelia gently rebuked her, for bestowing an epithet of pity on such desperate violators of the law, the sisters descended to the beach, to gratify the curiosity of Ferdinand, who wished to see the hardy cavalier come to land. As they hastened along the cliffs, they saw the roaring waves, bright in the sun beams, break over the horse and the rider; and as the noble animal rose from the abyss, and resolutely breasted the surge, the lashing waters whitened his sides with their foam. In one of these fearful moments, a huge wave, rolling towards the island, raised the man and horse upon its immense bosom, to a height almost level with the rock; and then plunged with them into a depth that seemed to cover them for ever.
"Merciful Heaven, it is Louis!" cried Alice—in that fatal instant she had recognised him, and with frantic shrieks ran forward, as if to meet him in the ocean.
Finding that the extraordinary swell of the last wave, had not merely torn the footing of his stout hunter from the ground, but had exhausted his strength, Louis slid from his back while he was yet overwhelmed by the weight of the surge; and grasping the bridle, swam with him through the deep water. Coming to the breakers, he waded the rest; and having drawn his faithful horse on the shelving rocks, was patting his heaving sides, when he perceived the terrified party rushing down the nearest path to his assistance. Ferdinand had beheld the whole with wonder. And now that he stood apart, and saw him, with dripping garments, and uncovered head, reining and soothing the alarmed animal, that he might not injure the sisters; the astonished Spaniard could not help exclaiming to himself:
"Mounting with springing step the broad ascent,
A buoyant form of matchless shape I spied,
Attired like one whose ardent soul is bent
To win in fleetest race, by glory's side.
Flinging its changeless splendor far and wide
From his bright forehead flamed the polar star;
Through his clear cheek the ruby-tinctured tide
Shone with a healthful glow; while on the air
Back from his radiant eyes, was blown the clustering hair!"
"Louis! Louis!" exclaimed both sisters at once. Alice clasped her hands and sobbed aloud.
"Why, my dearest cousin, encounter all this danger?" cried Cornelia.